ResilientLEX Manifesto

We are going down a new path – we need a new set of goals – this is a DRAFT – thoughts and comments welcome

ResilientLEX Manifesto:

Renewable energy : we will be energy independent

Carbon neutral : we will offset any fossil fuels we use through tree planting and open space programs

Distributed infrastructure: we will shift to small-scale, neighborhood based systems of water supply, waste disposal, and energy generation

Environment : We will restore all streams, have zero storm run-off, conserve soil and water, and have great air quality; we will adapt to a changed climate

Closed loop: we will have zero waste, either through recycling or waste-to-energy generation

Place based : we will consume locally grown food and our buildings and infrastructure will be produced from local materials

Local Economy: we will utilize local production, networks, and a local currency

Community: every person will have the opportunity to connect to the community; we will build only mixed income and mixed-use neighborhoods

Transportation: we will give priority to non-motorized and shared transit

Success in these areas will ensure that we are as invulnerable as possible to the shocks that will occur.

Each one of these areas is also a business opportunity. But they are different opportunities from the World War 2 model we’ve been working under for 65 years: big and centralized is better. Yes, for storming the beaches at Normandy and Iwo Jima big and centralized was better, but now big and centralized is just vulnerable. And that’s a security issue for us nationally and personally. Today, small and local is best.

Your script prompts a much needed discussion about the need for radically-emerging urbanisms in our slowly evolving homogeneous landscape, especially in one with a colonial, top-down upbringing . The language you use encourages me to continue rejecting the lexicon and frameworks in a practice subsumed by exhausted rhetoric. Thanks for the words.

I would enjoy the opportunity to collaborate and perhaps execute projects (ideas) of sorts that tactically expose, experiment, and blast the urgency of a reconceptualized society that evolves in a gentle, gregarious, egalitarian manner. I worked with you in school and, since, become much more anxious and angry with modern interpretations of that labeled “urban” or pertaining to “landscape.”